


Now, It's Our Time

by mijxamania



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Forrest/Alex (Mentioned in brief), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, New Beginnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25168390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mijxamania/pseuds/mijxamania
Summary: "It's not our time, right now.""But it will be."A year after that night at the Pony, their time has come. Michael and Alex finally rekindle their relationship. In other words, what my mono-shipping ass  wishes will happen at the BEGINNING of season 3. Sorry to any Forrest fans out there! Boy, this summary sucks.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 14
Kudos: 94





	Now, It's Our Time

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea for a while now. I’m not sure that the dog tag thing is even allowed in the military, but that’s the beauty of fanfiction – I can make my own rules :) Anyway, I know it’s not the best. I’m not good at descriptive writing. If I had any ounce of talent I would animate my stories as I see them in my head.

Michael was about to turn and head out of the diner when he felt a finger tapping at his shoulder. He almost dropped his take-out bag in surprise as his eyes met the one who demanded his attention. He hasn’t seen him in months – not since he left for Base for official service. Alex had told him that it was a short departure, but their goodbye that evening didn’t hurt any less. Michael waited for the man he loves like he always did; only this time, he wasn’t the only one waiting for his return. 

“A-Alex, hi,” Michael said, finally finding his voice. “You’re back.” He placed the bag back on the counter and pulled Alex into a tight hug. As Alex returned the hug back in earnest, neither one took notice of their may-be too prolonged hug as they both took in each other’s too familiar sent and warmth. After a moment more, to Michael’s dismay, Alex began to pull back and cleared his throat.  
“How’ve you been?” Alex asked Michael as he was getting his bearings back. Michael gave a sheepish smile.  
“Okay, I guess. I’ve been keeping myself busy – out of trouble. Hanging out with Isobel and trying to keep Max distracted and get his mind off of Liz every ten seconds.” Michael chuckled. What he didn’t say was that in the process he kept himself distracted from thinking of Alex every five seconds.  
Alex furrowed his perfect brow in concern, “Must be hard for him, huh?”  
“Yeah, pretty much.” Michael admitted – thinking of how much this year had been difficult for himself to maintain distance from Alex. Not seeing him was one thing, seeing him smiling and comfortably close with someone else, well that was just painful. 

A short period of silence and a look on Alex’s face which Michael couldn’t decipher filled the air. Michael was about to speak before the door chimed and both Alex and Michael saw Forrest smile and wave at Alex as he made his way to an empty booth. Michael took a deep breath and fought the stinging in his eyes. Of course Alex wanted to meet with Forrest the moment he gets back – it was only natural. Michael willed himself to keep composed, that he didn’t have the right to feel this way. It seemed that his face may have betrayed him though, as Alex searched for his eyes and gave him a small smile.  
“I was kinda meeting Forrest here to talk about some stuff. He’s leaving Roswell in a few days, so we need to sorta figure some things out, I guess.” Alex explained – he didn’t need to, he didn’t owe Michael anything, but Michael couldn’t deny that the sudden hope in his chest made his heart skip a beat. 

“Oh, uh. I’m sorry.” if that wasn’t totally honest, he’d keep that to himself. 

Alex sighed and looked back at the man waiting for him patiently. “It’s okay, he warned me that this was a possibility a while ago – told myself I’d be fine about it and admittedly I protected myself from getting in too deep in the first place, but it’s still a difficult situation, you know.” 

“There’s always long-distance.” Michael suggested, pushing his own feelings away. Alex needed a friend right now. Alex gave a small laugh. Michael noticed Forrest watching them subtly from the booth and turned to pick up his take-out bag again. “Anyway, I should leave you to it, I guess…Alex, talk it out with him, okay. Listen to your heart. You can try to make it work.” Alex gave him a small nod in appreciation and watched as Michael started moving to leave the diner, “You look amazing, by the way,” Michael said before taking a step to the door, trying to defuse Alex’s nervousness, and gave Alex an encouraging smile. Alex scoffed, but smiled back nonetheless. Alex’s eyes never left Michael until he reached his truck and drove off. He took a deep breath and made his way to Forrest.  
************************  
It was getting late, and Michael sat contently in one of the chairs outside his airstream, watching the sun set peacefully. When he got back up from reaching down for another beer, a familiar van made his way into his lot. He smiled to himself, seeing Alex twice in one day – lately, that was a gift. He waited for Alex to jump down and smiled at the airman. 

“Well, I did it,” Alex began as he made his way closer to where Michael remained seated. “I broke up with Forrest.” 

Michael tried his best to frown, “I’m sorry.” He held out the unopened beer which Alex took gratefully before sitting down on the other chair a few feet away from Michael’s. 

“No you’re not.” Alex replied, not unkindly. He laughed as Michael looked up at him, kicking himself for making it so obvious. “It’s for the best. It wouldn’t have been fair to either of us.” 

Michael kept silent, looking down and playing with the beer bottle label as he took the information in. Michael registered Alex opening his beer and taking a small swig before he began to speak. “I think I know why you left the Pony that night. Why you kept your distance this past year.” 

Michael closed his eyes tightly, taking away any suspicion that Alex was wrong about his beliefs. He didn’t know what to say, so he let Alex speak. “I watched you, you know. You tried to hide how seeing Forrest and I together really made you feel. How you respected my decision to try it out. And I thank you for that, Michael.”  
Michael nodded silently, gaze never leaving the ground. The tingling behind his eyes evident as Alex kept his eyes on him. His curls were illuminated by the sunset, his face highlighted stunningly as Alex’s own tears struggled to keep back. “Why are we so scared to love each other, Michael?” 

Michael’s head turned to Alex so fast a tear fell down his cheek. “No,” Michael began, voice turning sure, “that’s not it – Alex, loving you is the easiest thing in the world.” Alex’s eyes swelled with unshed tears at the familiar words. “What I am afraid of is screwing up again, hurting you, losing you forever.” Alex wiped a few stray tears and looked up at Michael as he moved his chair closer to Alex’s. “You don’t deserve that. You deserve to be happy. That’s why I didn’t do anything about Forrest. I saw how happy he made you and you’ve become even more of an amazing, beautiful person because of that.” Michael declared with all honesty. ‘’All I ever did was hurt you.”

Michael was about to get off the chair and walk off before Alex grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. Alex shook his head and dried his eyes before reaching around his neck and pulled out what Michael noticed were dog tags from under his shirt. Alex looked at them and closed his palms around them. Michael sat still in the chair again and thought about what to say before his thoughts were cut short. “A few years ago in the force, we sort of made this tradition where we’d get the name of someone or something that reminds us of home engraved on the back of our tags to remind us of what we were fighting for.” Alex took off one of his tags and kept it close in his palm. “I never did it before, because I wasn’t comfortable with, well, you know. But all these years the name I chose never changed.”  
Michael swallowed thickly as Alex extended his arm to him. He gently took the tag and gingerly moved his thumb around Alex’s name before turning it over. There on the back, clear as day was his name engraved in a lovely cursive. Michael pulled back a sob and held the tag just as tightly as Alex did before. 

“It was, is and will always be you. You don’t know it, but you helped me through all that for so long, Michael. Throughout my years on the force you gave me strength when I became weak, you kept me going when I was down, you saved me from giving up right there and then when I lost my leg. You were always there with me. Yes, you hurt me, but I also hurt you. We both made mistakes with each other and screwed this up because of what we were going through. But I don’t want to do that anymore. We’ve changed, we both grew into better people and damn it, Guerin, I love you and want to continue to grow and be happy with you. Whatever this connection between us is, I want it. I want us to explore it further, together.” 

Alex’s sharp certainty in his words fueled Michael’s determination to finally make this right with him once and for all. He got off the chair and kneeled down in front of Alex and grabbed his hands, tag nestled between them. “I want that too, Alex. I love you so much. I’m so sorry for everything. There is no excuse for what I did, but I swear, I’ll be better, I’ll do better. I want to be good for you!” Michael cried and rested his head on their joined hands in promise. Alex’s fresh tears ran freely down his face and he gently pulled Michael’s face up towards his, catching his eyes one more time. 

“You are good for me, Michael. We’re good for each other. We just never gave ourselves the chance to prove it.” Alex sniffed and pressed his forehead to Michael’s. “Together?” Alex asked with a teary smile.  
“Together,” Michael answered with conviction. Michael held Alex’s eyes for a few more seconds before they both silently agreed to meet in the middle and pressed their lips to one another’s in a soft kiss, sealing their promise of a new start.  
************************  
From then on, whenever Michael feels like that extra shot of whisky, or when he finds himself losing hope on humanity or when going through new information about who he is or his family or when his entropy starts to falter – he clutches the tag, now homed permanently around his neck, and remembers who he’s fighting for.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
